Suchergebnisse

Cities are ecosystems that consume a lot of energy and substance, as well as generate much waste and pollution. Concerns about waste and misuse of natural resources have led people and governments to think better about urban growth. Nowadays half of world population lives in cities, and it is expected a considerable increase over the next years in developing countries. Already in some European Union countries, which currently go through times of crisis, it is misunderstood the necessity of cities expansion. Portugal is one of these developed countries, with many historical cities and non-necessity of expansion, but a need for changes, which accompany the world development and their sustainable premises. The way cities in Portugal should evolve, goes through the sustainable renovation, whether urban or buildings. In the scope of sustainable rehabilitation as well as in the conception of sustainable projects, it is important to consider the, inevitably connected, environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects. The main objective of this paper is to discuss urban renovation, which should be resilient, should know how to add value to the environment where people live in, taking advantage of cities elements, through the technological evolution and rational use of natural resources, sustainable materials and ...

The strongest point of vernacular architecture is the harmony between environment and buildings. Mediterranean vernacular architecture is harmonized with its local context, including culture and traditions. In addition, it respects environmental and climatic factors, construction materials, and morphology. In the past, people in Palestine built their houses according to their possibilities, needs, available materials, topography, and culture. Without any control from the government or any legal limitations or architects, it was people?s architecture, simple architecture. This paper discusses the differences between vernacular and contemporary residential buildings of the city of Nablus at the building scale. The research methodology adopts explanatory qualitative analysis and comparative synthesis methods for both the old and the new buildings of the city of Nablus and considers many parameters of residential buildings such as building materials, interior spaces, openings and vegetation, and the effect of sociocultural values on each. The outcomes of this research allow understanding how the new city residential buildings are far away from the sustainability principles and how the old city is close to it and how the architects and stakeholders could learn from the strategies of vernacular architecture. ; ERASMUS MUNDUS Peace II program ...

The harmony between environment and buildings is the strongest point of vernacular architecture. In this context, the Mediterranean vernacular architecture is harmonized with its local context, including culture and traditions. In addition, it respects environmental and climatic factors, construction materials and morphology. In the past, people in Palestine built their houses according to their possibilities, needs, available materials, topography, and culture. Without any control from the government or any legal limitations or architects, it was people architecture, simple architecture. This paper discusses the differences between vernacular and contemporary cities of Palestine at the urban scale. The research methodology adopts explanatory qualitative analysis and comparative synthesis methods for both the old and the new area of the city of Nablus and considers many parameters of the cities such as the city layout, skyline, infrastructure and public spaces. The outcomes of this research allow understanding how the new city is far away from the sustainability principles and how the old city is closer to it and how the architects and stakeholders could learn from the strategies of vernacular architecture. The paper draws a set of recommendations for more in-depth studies, based on quantitative survey with energy efficiency measurements in the Mediterranean ...

The European Union objectives in the Horizon 2020 program aim to reduce environmental impact through strategies such as the improvement of energy efficiency and the use of renewable technologies. With regard to the goal of sustainable development, which integrates environmental, social, and economic dimensions relating to the preservation of the planet and the integrity of consumers, several types of sustainability certification tools are currently used in the construction industry e.g., Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), and the Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool). There are international sustainability methodologies designed specifically for high schools and methodologies specific to the Portuguese reality, such as Natura Domus, LiderA (Liderar pelo Ambiente para a construção sustentável - Leading the Environment for Sustainable Construction) and SBtoolPT (Sustainable Building Tool, Portugal). Currently, with the concern in Portugal to requalify schools, it has become necessary to develop a specific methodology for school buildings according to the Portuguese reality. This work highlights the SBTool methodology that is employed in several countries and can be adapted to basic education institutions as the basis for the formulation of responsible citizens and the development of a country. The main aim of this study is to adapt an already existing assessment tool of sustainability (SBToolPT), maintaining some indicators while modifying and adding others, in order to develop a methodology specifically for conducting a Sustainability Assessment of High School Buildings in Portugal?SAHSBPT. In order to achieve this goal, other methodologies that already incorporate parameters relating to the school environment are analyzed, such as LEED BD + C Schools (LEED Building Design and Construction School), BREEAM Education 2008, and the SBTool for K?12 ...

The discussion of the difficulties in the integration of environmental sustainability requirements in public buildings and the subsequent evaluation of the design projects leads to the analysis of the limits imposed by the laws governing the public procurement process, the formulation of the call for bids and the Terms of Reference for the assessment criteria. In 1993, Brazil implemented into practice the 37th article of Brazilian Federal Constitution by means of the signature of federal law number 8666 enforcing general rules on administrative contracts for design projects (construction and engineering services). All government levels must obey this regulation. In 2010, the law received an amendment obliging all contracts to follow sustainability requirements. In this sense, some difficulties have been detected. Although LEED and HQE / AQUA have been adopted by some Brazilians entrepreneurs, SBTool assessment method and tool is freely available to the public and, for this reason, can be easily adapted and integrated in public procurement processes. Thus, this research deals with the preliminary analysis of the potential adoption of SBTool in buildings in order to lead development assessment of projects with environmental quality. Results already indicate the potential of SBtool on Brazilianâ s public procurement process as long as it has been considered since the beginning of the design process (pre-design phase). ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq; ...

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of housing in Portugal, presenting the building stock characterisation, the related Portuguese legislation and the socio-economic aspects. For this purpose, the main housing building technology used in Portugal is described and the problems related to multi-storey family houses are ...

Human being, especially in urban areas, lives surrounded by noise which causes discomfort and stress and is responsible for a great number of psychological and physical damages. The ever-growing technological development of our cities has been leading to a continuous increase in the sound levels observed in urban areas caused, essentially by traffic and industries. In order to reduce the noise levels in residential and service areas, recent Portuguese legislation in this field, makes mandatory, as a first step, the sound characterization of the different urban zones. Each municipality is obliged to do or to promote the elaboration of noise maps. There are already available several mathematical models that allow the elaboration of these maps. However, there are some limitations in these codes due to the great difficulty in foreseeing and simulate some particular situations. The objective of this work is the comparison and experimental validation of available codes in the elaboration of a noise map of the city of Guimarães. The accuracy and versatility of some existing codes will be evaluated by the comparison of the results obtained by simulation with real values measured in on-site measurement campaigns. ; (undefined) ...

The climate and energy package is a set of binding legislations which aims to ensure the European Union meets its ambitious climate and energy targets for 2020. These targets, known as the "20-20-20" targets, have set three key objectives: a 20% reduction in the EU greenhouse gas emissions, a 20% rise in the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources and a 20% improvement in the energy efficiency. More renewable energies will enable the EU to lower greenhouse emissions and make it less dependent on imported energy. Boosting the industry of renewables will encourage technological innovation and employment in Europe. On this topic, photovoltaic façades are known to be a solution that allows both energy efficiency and environmental performance of buildings. This paper reports on a study of façade systems that have incorporated photovoltaic panels, considering computational simulations for Portugal. The main objective is to analyze the characteristics and parameters that define more efficient systems based on computer simulations carried out by Solterm 5.0. The results show the high potential of the use of the proposed technology in Portugal, especially in the Southern region, because of its latitude. Regarding energy efficiency and environmental performance, inclined polycrystalline silicon solar panels achieved the best results and the most efficient panel was Kyocera KC167G-2, followed by BP 3160. The comparison between simulation results and results provided in the literature shows that the use of computer programs is viable to the analysis of the energy efficiency of photovoltaic systems in ...

New legislation and incentives have been created, showing that there is an attempt to act and to intervene in energy efficiency area. Energy consumption reduction and prevention of energy waste is one of the main objectives of the European Union (EU). Building facades constitute a privileged component to propose solutions, once it has a major influence in the energy consumption in the building and in occupants comfort; because it has elements that contribute significantly with the heat transfer. This paper presents a study on about a new facade concept: "Facade Modules for Eco-Efficient Refurbishment of Buildings", especially on thermal performance of glazing modules. Computational simulation was done with the Design Builder software for ten different double glazing types (composed by green and transparent solar control glass, self-cleaning glass, two low-e glasses types, two extra clear glass) for two climates in Portugal (Coimbra and Faro) and four solar orientations (north, south, east and west). The results were obtained for heating and cooling energy necessities and were compared to all glazing types. These results showed a better performance to glazing compositions that combines solar control and self-cleaning glass with extra clear glass to both cities. Facades with green solar control glass and extra clear glass presented a better performance in comparison with others types studied, decrease cooling energy necessities. The great majority of the glass facade compositions presented heating and cooling energy necessities according to Portuguese standards (RCCTE) ...

Energy performance of buildings is a worldwide increasing investigated field, due to ever more stringent energy standards aimed at reducing the buildings' impact on the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact that occupant behavior and climate change have on the heating and cooling needs of residential buildings. With this aim, data of a questionnaire survey delivered in Southern Italy were used to obtain daily use profiles of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling, both in winter and in summer. Three climatic scenarios were investigated: The current scenario (2020), and two future scenarios (2050 and 2080). The CCWorldWeatherGen tool was used to create the weather files of future climate scenarios, and DesignBuilder was applied to conduct dynamic energy simulations. Firstly, the results obtained for 2020 demonstrated how the occupants' preferences related to the use of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling systems (daily schedules and temperature setpoints) impact on energy needs. Heating energy needs appeared more affected by the heating schedules, while cooling energy needs were mostly influenced by both natural ventilation and usage schedules. Secondly, due to the temperature rise, substantial decrements of the energy needs for heating and increments of cooling energy needs were observed in all the future scenarios where in addition, the impact of occupant behavior appeared amplified. ; This research was funded by the Calabria Region Government with the Gianmarco Fajilla's Ph.D. scholarship (POR Calabria FSE/FESR 2014-2020) grant number H21G18000170006. A part of this publication has received funding from Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (SENACYT) under the project code FID18-056. This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades de Espana (RTI2018-093849-B-C31 -MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades -Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI, RED2018-102431-T). ...

"First Published August 21, 2013" ; The thermal performance of a modular lightweight steel framed wall was measured and calculated with three-dimensional finite element method model. The focus of this article is on the effect of flanking thermal losses. The calculated heat flux values varied from ?22% (external surface) to +50% (internal surface) when flanking loss was set to 0 as a reference case, thermal transmittance equal to 0.30 W/(m2·K). Other critical parameters were the existence of fixing ?L?-shaped steel elements and the perimeter thermal insulation (10 cm XPS). ; The authors would like to thank the European Union for funding in the form of the QREN SI I&DT N. 5527 – 'CoolHaven – Development of residential modular and eco-sustainable houses, with structural light steel frames' grant. ...

The growing debate about global environmental problems is evident in several spheres of society. The concern for the future of the planet is used as a political slogan, inspiring the creation of new laws and encouraging academic research that serves this purpose, as well as increasing the number of government agencies concerned with this matter. The 21st century is considered the ?century of sustainable development?. Sustainability education in high schools has the potential to make the benefits of civil construction more visible to society and media by showing students, parents, and communities in general how sustainability in the built environment can improve their lives in economic, social, and environmental aspects. This study was applied in three high schools of Juiz de Fora (Brazil) and Guimarães (Portugal). These high schools have similar characteristics regarding teaching patterns and commitment to strengthening sustainability in their respective regions and reflect their socio-economic conditions, governmental strategies, everyday habits, and cultural attributes. The information was collected through questionnaires applied to high school students in 2017. This paper shows the need for including an indicator of sustainability awareness in sustainability assessment tools for high school buildings. ; Federal University of Juiz de Fora. (UFJF, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil). ...

The Portuguese housing sector experienced a significant growth throughout the 20th century, particularly in the last quarter, after the democratic revolution in 1974. In fact, the number of buildings built between 1970 and 1990 is more than one third of the buildings actually existing in Portugal. Therefore most of them were built before the publication of the first regulation concerning the energy efficiency in buildings. Regarding this scenario, it would be expected that rehabilitation activities would represent most of the current construction activities. However, given some remaining barriers from old social policies, this situation is not observed; actually building retrofitting is the least significant sector, accentuating the degradation level of major part of the Portuguese housing stock. Several studies show that the main problems are found in the buildings envelope elements, such as roofs and façades. Based on this context, the aim of this paper is to introduce some examples of building retrofitting systems that, adapted to the Portuguese main needs and requirements may represent sustainable solutions to overcome the identified needs of Portuguese buildings' ...

The recast of the energy performance of buildings directive stipulates that by 2020 all new buildings should reach nearly zero energy levels (2019 for buildings owned or occupied by public authorities). Therefore technicians involved in the design, conception and approval of such buildings should be able to understand and apply nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) concepts both towards new buildings and the refurbishment of existing ones. However the number of architects and engineers that are able to deal with new technologies and standards might not be adequate to the increasing market demand. Additionally, at European Union (EU) level there are differences in commitment to the EU targets and the construction of nZEB. In this context, arose the SouthZEB project, that is an Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) funded project, that aims to fill this gap and address the need to develop training schemes to professionals involved in nZEB building process, transferring successful practices and knowledge from front runners to target Southern EU countries that are less advanced in this area. This paper presents the project aims and ...

Climate change has a strong influence on the energy consumption of buildings, affecting both the heating and cooling demand in the actual and future scenario. In this paper, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the influence of both the occupant behaviour and the climate change on the environmental impact of the heating and cooling systems of an apartment located in southern Italy. The analysis was conducted using IPCC GWP and ReCiPe indicators as well as the Ecoinvent database. The influence of occupant behaviour was included in the analysis considering different usage profiles during the operational phase, while the effect of climate change was considered by varying the weather file every thirty years. The adoption of the real usage profiles showed that the impact of the systems was highly influenced by the occupant behaviour. In particular, the environmental impact of the heating system appeared more influenced by the operation hours, while that of the cooling system was more affected by the natural ventilation schedules. Furthermore, the influence of climate change demonstrated that more attention has to be dedicated to the cooling demand that in the future years will play an ever-greater role in the energy consumption of buildings. ; This research was funded by the Calabria Region Government with the Gianmarco Fajilla's Ph.D. scholarship (POR Calabria FSE/FESR 2014–2020) grant number H21G18000170006. A part of this publication has received funding from Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (SENACYT) under the project code FID18-056. This research was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31—MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades—Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme.